Grant: Master's Award: Canada Graduate Scholarships

Bladder cancer (BC) is one of the most common cancers in Canada. Managing the disease is challenging as it is difficult to cure and frequently comes back after the cancer seems to initially disappear. The gold standard treatment of BCs with a higher risk of returning involves surgery followed by an immunotherapy that is administered directly into the bladder. This immunotherapy consists of the same bacteria used to vaccinate against tuberculosis, known as Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG). Despite being used in this context for decades, we do not fully understand how BC patients given BCG mount a stronger immune response against the tumour, preventing it from returning. Additionally, this treatment is not fully effective in about half of the patients, which contributes significantly the cancer returning, spreading, or proving fata. Thus, there is a clear need to develop a more complete understanding of BCG’s mechanism of action. Our research aims to reveal how immune responses evoked by BCG can be enhanced. We propose that combining BCG with chemotherapy will enhance a type of immune memory induced by BCG, leading to improved treatment of BC. The immune system can be further activated by products released by dying tumour cells following chemotherapy, acquiring a form of memory that can fight the cancer long-term. Mice with BC will be treated with a combination of BCG and chemotherapy and the treatment response of those mice will be compared to those treated with BCG alone. Should we establish that combination with chemotherapy improves BCG therapy for higher-risk BC management of BC could be substantially improved. Further, these findings can be applied to other cancers, where immunotherapy is an exciting emerging avenue of research.